Former firefighter pleads guilty to Dorn VA bomb threat

A former volunteer firefighter pleaded guilty Wednesday to making hoax threats about placing a bomb at a Columbia hospital in hopes that his fire station would get to respond to other calls, according to officials.

Karry Max Taylor III, 21, pleaded guilty to making a hoax bomb threat, and will be sentenced at a later date, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Court evidence showed that three people – two in South Carolina and one in New York – each received a text message from an unknown South Carolina number on Jan. 4, 2016, according to prosecutors. The text message advised that someone had placed a bomb in the parking lot of the Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Garners Ferry Road.

“Hey Montana, this is Sosa. Omar said he put a bomb in the parking lot or something...in the VA hospital on Garners Ferry Road. I am scared and I don’t know what to do,” the message read, according to prosecutors. The people who received the texts notified law enforcement, who determined the texts were referring to the Veterans Affairs medical center in Columbia.

The medical center was on lockdown for three hours while police searched the area for explosives, prosecutors said. The FBI later linked the text messages back to a cellphone and email account belonging to Taylor, who was a volunteer with the Columbia Fire Department.

Taylor admitted to sending texts to random numbers “in an effort to draw other fire engines to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in hopes that his fire station would then be called to respond to any other calls that occurred during that time frame,” a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office states.

Taylor faces up to five years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine.

This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Former firefighter pleads guilty to Dorn VA bomb threat."